Where those in power commit as many crimes in the name of faith as the poor in the name of survival. The powerful might be among the poor in church but they don’t cross paths in the prisons or become enslaved in debt.

It is difficult to live in a world

Built on privilege and inherited blessings that can last through the ages. Maybe at some point your ancestors did something right and earned – or stole – the fortunes you rely on. It is frightening to think how that power can be wielded with malice. If absolute power corrupts absolutely, imagine the impact of guaranteed absolute power your entire life.

It is difficult to live in a world

That allows greed and profit to drive one amazing creature after the other to extinction. Not so far away now there is a real possibility we will create mankind’s own doom. Weapons are easily financed. The world quickly filled with needy and desperate people living in cities of ash and poisoned air, but we will be the rulers of it all.

It is difficult to live in a world

You can only survive by closing your eyes and pretending ignorance is bliss. Knowledge is spreading and more accessible but even at this rate there is no way to keep up with propaganda, lies and distortions manufactured so easily today. Trust no one. Believe no one. Agree with no one. The powerful have won again, and will be rulers of it all.

Here are two little things that bug me about traffic patterns and planning. Maybe it is just me, but if I am driving in residential or even business areas where there are a lot of intersections, I think it is weird and dangerous when you come to an intersection but the traffic coming from a dead-end street does not have to stop. This seems to happen a lot where a main road ends in cul de sacs where the “dead-end” is only one block long. Not much traffic comes from there and it is easy to miss the fact that on-coming traffic has no stop sign.

The second minor thing is when you have multiple lanes of road or entry ramps to a highway where the lanes merge and signs say the left lane ends! Again this does not make logical sense. Merging traffic in the US comes in from the right lane the vast majority of the time. The right lane is the slow or merge/exit lane. Faster traffic is encouraged to use the left lanes, implying they have priority. Why tell a priority lane that the lane ends…… merge into the right lane……. and sometimes when you reach the end of the entry ramp you have to merge left again? These little things just bug me from time to time.

I like to drive around cities and country sides. It becomes obvious after a bit of traveling that some cities are better planned and have more logical systems in place than others. I would love to have the ear of some city planners because it is clear they do not PLAN for growth and other transportation needs early enough. I would like to share some of my thoughts with you, and hopefully you will share yours here as well. Who knows, maybe we can get the attention of a few city planners while we are it!

One thing I would really like to see changed is the location of many schools. I know there are good reasons, but all too often they are located on the main strip through towns of all sizes. I thought about posting pictures as examples, but we have all seen them. My guess is this makes the land rather expensive for all tax payers. Or to look at it another way, the land is of commercial value and interest to local businesses. A number of businesses could pay fair price for the prime locations and exposure the real estate could provide and that would translate to higher tax collected and business success in the area.

Now consider if the schools would be located a few blocks away from “the main drag” going through town. Your children will be safer crossing the streets and playing in the area due to reduced traffic around the school. People that are not supposed to be there would be more obvious if they are loitering around the area. This would reduce risk to students.

Now that the school is not on the main road, traffic flow will be improved by not restricting speeds in school zones, reducing congestion in parts of town most people will have to travel through daily or at least quite often. I understand this might mean a loss of revenue by reducing speeding violations through school zones, but I think we can live with that!

What do you think? Do you see more reasons to adopt this policy? Do you think there are reasons or situations where this would not be beneficial?

Let me know what bothers you about travel through your city and in other locations. Who knows, maybe we can suggest changes that will help a lot of people.